eggcorn: "profound" (profane) words

[Dennis Preston]

One phonaesthetic argument put forward some time ago (forgot the
reference) is that ethnic slurs and obscenities are full of velars,
voiceless velars in particular. Plenty of exceptions (which, as many
have pointed out, only prove the rule), but not enough to challenge
the generalization it seems to  me. Anybody remember this? I'd like
to retrieve the reference?

dInIs

>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       James Harbeck <jharbeck at SYMPATICO.CA>
>Subject:      Re: eggcorn: "profound" (profane) words
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>I'm put in mind of an exchange between me and a friend, sometime around 1986:
>
>He: "James, you're a prick."
>Me: "Yeah? Well, you're a cunt."
>He: "Well, _fuck me_!"
>
>Certainly in the early and mid 1980s in Alberta, girls considered
>"cunt" the most offensive word possible, which corroborates otehr
>evidence here presented. Guys were somewhat less put off by it,
>although we were always aware of its great power to offend women.
>"Prick" was and is, in the usage I'm familiar with, an only barely
>vulgar term to refer to a guy who is deliberately mean. "Cunt"
>referring to a guy doesn't have feminine overtones for me; it means
>he's like a prick but worse because either smarter, stupider, more
>powerful, or what have you. "Cunt" to refer to a woman would be like
>"bitch" but with a good deal more control and deliberateness. But
>these are merely the senses that I've always understood for them;
>YRMV.
>
>I'd be interested if anyone knows of any research on the
>phonaesthetics of "cunt".
>
>James Harbeck.
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of English
Morrill Hall 15-C
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48864 USA

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org